Thing is, at home in Sierra Leone, when we say okro, this is what we mean. No sauce, soup, stew or anything attached. We just know. Decided to go with Okra Soup in the end just because I had to think of something. Okro soup tends to have a bit of a marmite like reaction in people. People either love it or hate it. Me, I absofreakinglutely love it and will happily spend a week eating nothing but this for breakfast, lunch and supper. Okro is best served with some rice, fufu and in a bread sandwich. Bread sandwich I hear you ask? Yes it really, really does go well in a hot bread sandwich.
A Word about Okro
Okra is also known as okro, lady fingers, ngombo and gumbo. You can find it fresh in ethnic markets, and in the vegetable section of large supermarkets. You can also find it in the frozen section of ethnic supermarkets When choosing okra to cook with, it is important to choose the smaller younger okro as these are easier to slice and of course cook much quicker. Older tougher okra would work too but will take longer to cook.
Okra Stew Tools
How to Cook Okro Soup
This recipe I give here is for how to cook okro soup Sierra Leone style. Before I show you how to make Okra soup can I first tell you about the ingredients? At the bare minimum, you will need This post contains affiliate links. For more information, check out my disclosure. Here are some of the items you will need to make this recipe.
Pot. Knife. Cooking Spoon. Cutting board. Blender. Measuring jugs or cups. Measuring teaspoons. Bowls with covers.
For storing your leftover food.
Okro Palm oil Dried fish or crayfish Stock Onion Seasoning Bicarbonate of soda to get the right texture for the soup
As you can see I have added a few extra bits to my recipe as these are what I like and grew up cooking with. Beef is really good in this recipe but you can make it without, just add a little extra dried fish plus you can add some fresh shrimps toward the end of cooking.
Okra Soup Tips
My biggest tip is to add aubergine puree to the soup base. This not only adds a good flavour but it adds thickness to the okro soup as well. Make sure to cut the okra into very thin rounds as these cook quicker, discard the stalks and the ends. Although the okro stew takes a bit of time to cook, most of it is just it simmering away and you are free to do other things whilst cooking this. I tend to cook my African food in huge batches. I will spend one day a month and cook 3 to 4 times the quantities I give here and freeze them. Pretty much gives me a load of quick African weeknight suppers whenever I need them. Awesome, right?
One of the things I miss is the communal eating that use to happen in the late afternoon sunshine. Where we transferred an impressive amount of rice into huge ‘bafpans’, at least 100 cm in diameter, top it with okra plasas, sit round crossed legged, catch up on the day’s events and eat. I really, really, really miss that. I wonder what my kids would say if I try and get some communal eating here. I might just try it with the next batch of okro soup so watch this space. Thank you for reading my okro soup recipe post. And please come visit again as I continue dreaming up recipes, traditional African recipes, African fusion recipes, Sierra Leone recipes, travel plans and much more for you. West African flavours – is the spot on my blog where I share both traditional Sierra Leonean recipes and West African fusion recipes.
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